Unclaimed bodies now a local issue

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff 143 District State Rep. Gail Lavielle talks with friends during Republican Presidential candidate John Kasich Town Hall Meeting at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield Conn. on Friday

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff 143 District State Rep. Gail Lavielle talks with friends during Republican Presidential candidate John Kasich Town Hall Meeting at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield Conn. on

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff 143 District State Rep. Gail Lavielle talks with friends during Republican Presidential candidate John Kasich Town Hall Meeting at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield Conn. on Friday

Hour Photo/Alex von Kleydorff 143 District State Rep. Gail Lavielle talks with friends during Republican Presidential candidate John Kasich Town Hall Meeting at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield Conn. on

WILTON — The state may have announced that local municipalities will be forced to make their own arrangements for unclaimed dead bodies after recent cuts to the state’s medical examiner, but for Wilton, the problem doesn’t seem to be looming too largely.

According to Wilton Police Lieutenant Stephen Brennan there was not a single unclaimed death in the town during the last year, therefore he doesn’t expect this to have any adverse effect on the town.

“This is not an issue, nor has it ever been for our community,” said Brennan.

This comes on the back of the revelation that towns and cities will have to handle the bodies of about 100 people a year who die of natural causes and don’t require autopsies, Dr. James Gill, the chief medical examiner, announced last Thursday.

The news, which puts an end to a long-held courtesy extended to communities, prompted Republicans to criticize the Democratic budget that takes effect July 1.

“We suggest that municipalities work with the local police to develop a plan to transport and store these remains, as the police are usually at the scene of death,” Gill said in a communication to towns and cities, citing existing state statutes. He said the new procedure would take effect on July 1, the start of the new fiscal year, because of budget reductions and storage limitations.

Gill recently complained to state lawmakers that while funding for his agency’s $6.2 million budget will be cut by 11 percent, the caseload has increased by 50 percent in recent years, particularly by the opioid epidemic that claimed about 720 lives in Connecticut last year.

Gill said that in cases of people, including the elderly, who die in their homes, they will no longer be transported to Farmington for examination.

And for the deceased who are unclaimed by relatives, towns and cities will have to take possession of the bodies once the medical examiners finish their work.

Gill expects the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association to help towns and cities with arranging assistance.

The medical examiner’s office has seen a sharp increase in autopsies in recent years, from 1,382 in 2012 to 1,723 in 2014.

Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, in reaction to Gill’s statement, said the new mandate will become a “burden” on towns and cities for which they have not planned.

“How much more inhumane can you get?” Fasano said in a statement.

“Democrats have cut the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office to the point where they can no longer do their job, and it will now be up to individual municipalities to process human remains.”

While those at the local level in Wilton don’t see the new changes making much of a difference in day-to-day operations, Wilton’s state legislators see this as problem of principle more than anything.

State Rep. Gail Lavielle, R-Wilton, said this would require the town to allocate funds for storage and disposal of unclaimed, unidentified remains.

“In principle, this is just another example — and I do not believe that it will be the last — of things that towns are going to find themselves saddled with. And, what it means, is more expenses; more time and effort expended; and even more procedures,” Lavielle said.